We believe the Adams Transformer House on Buffalo Avenue restored as a Tesla museum has the potential of drawing millions of tourists to the city on its own merits, namely, Tesla fans from around the world who would come here specifically for the museum. Combine this with the fact that like-minded individuals downstate are mirroring our efforts and in the process of establishing a Tesla museum at the Wardenclyffe site on Long Island. One could envision a Tesla/Power cultural and industrial heritage tourism theme for New York State, with Niagara Falls as one of the epicenters.

While Nikola Tesla has often been mentioned in the same breath with the hydropower pioneers, he never really was accorded an appropriate place in the Niagara story. Finally, it appears that local officials, preservationists, area historical groups and concerned citizens are intent on correcting that shortcoming.

While plans are in their infancy, a group of about 20 people met Thursday afternoon in the Niagara Falls Public Library on Main Street to talk about how the project may be finally achieved.

A museum or interpretive center telling the story of Tesla and Niagara Falls is seen as a potentially promising new attraction in a city in desperate need of giving visitors more things to do when they’re here.

The nine-foot bronze statue of Nikola Tesla has sat on Goat Island in Niagara Falls State Park for nearly four decades, a weather-worn monument to a man largely forgotten despite helping to create the electrified world that Niagara Falls symbolizes.

Hundreds of thousands of tourists walk past the statue each year – many of them posing for photos while sitting in its lap – not knowing about the enormous contributions of the creator of the alternating current system that lights our homes.